About portraits of women as a male artist: Do all women have to be drawn by women, or only prudishly by men? Perhaps some feel in a Patriarchal society, men should be artistically castrated. When I am angry at men or myself, I do feel that severe hatred against abuse. If women do not think any man should be called a Feminist, they do not have to call me that, regardless of my intense desire to respect and love the symbol of divine feminine (goddess concept) which is in touch with humanity (the relation between our best qualities possible in reality, and the ideal mental world). Sometimes the difference between sexist exploitation and respect to a heroine in portraits is mood, attitude, and personality; and how much those are portrayed to the observer (beyond blatant abuse of a model). If the model conveys they are wanting to share their look with others, guarded or proud, warning or invitation, regardless of the photographer or artist, i think it speaks more about the model or the character of the subject as it should, since they are not meant to represent an object in the art, but a realistic living being with some kind of spirit. i think not all idols are false, if a person looks up to a hero as a subject of study and reflection. The humanity of a subject and how the observer feels about that, is where i like the activity to be. If i can get the observer to feel they have a relation to the subject, regardless of the artist, i feel successful. the power of emotion being with the subject actor, not the camera-man artist who best represents an observer. If an observer feels uncomfortable as an abuser or a victim of the subject, rather than as a more objective neutral non-judgmental observer, then it is no longer a show about observing, but participating like a theater in the round where the audience can get involved in the play, which is not predictable or safe, and can easily be condemned resulting from personal feelings from people who now feel a real involvement and responsibility to judge fellow participants in the act of art. i personally like to draw all shapes of people, some models do happen to be skinny, but i prefer to represent “normal sizes” which are realistically common, and work with people comfortable acting a role or presenting themselves how they want. Sometimes art involves normal traits and sometimes abnormal traits. . Large or small to me depends on the model, when using a model for who they are as a person, i like realism in proportion for serious pieces. For me the self-esteem of a model who I view as a friend is critical. If the observer views all sexuality as perversion, they will not like my observations of nature, and I must accept that is the view of many people who think women should be wrapped up and hidden from view, only men can be topless, or that all public nudity is sin (conservative society). Thank you for listening, enjoy art for art’s sake as much as possible, regardless of the human flaws of an artist that may or may-not be self aware of intentions and how those intentions relate to popular culture or social manners.

The best media that expresses the theme of appearance and reality, is the wide wonderful world of Art! One can assume that there are four sub-divisions of our sensorial existence in reality: visual reality, physical reality, olfactory reality, and audio reality; which are all dependent on each-other, and inter-connected with individual and group mental realities. There are also appearances of all our senses. A fifth sense could be considered to be our metaphysical imagination (spirit mind). Through drawing and painting visual arts, one experiences visual appearances and then mental appearance. Mental neocortical impressions of fantasy or reality, can be perceived in various combinations. That appearance can be taken to be the reality of what the art represents, until a later meditational analysis of our brains produces a different interpretation of our visual and mental reality, that we believe about the work of art; including what the art actually is, what it represents, and what it means to us or others.

For example, Pieter Bruegel the Elder based his detailed drawing work upon realistic observations, to represent figures and landscapes; however like Bosch, his art combines very surreal and fantastic aspects to what we can identify as figures and landscapes. Mental reality sinks in later, that his art cleverly pokes fun at the Christian Catholic Church. In fact, Bruegel ordered his wife to burn certain drawings because he thought they were “too biting and sharp”. Bruegel’s reality was hidden within the action, setting, and characters of his art works; because he was reluctant to openly admit his surreptitious views on the evils of society.

Bruegel earned his living producing drawings to be turned into prints for the leading print publisher Hieronymus Cock. His great successes were a series of allegories, which adopted many obsequious style mannerisms of his predecessor Hieronymus Bosch. In Bruegel’s works his sinners are grotesque, while the allegories of virtue wear odd head-gear. Imitations of Bosch sold well, like ‘Big Fish Eat Little Fish’ (Albertina), which Bruegel signed but Cock falsely attributed to Bosch in the print version.

Another example of a famous surreal artist is M.C. Escher. Maurits Cornelis Escher was brilliant for drawing impossible shapes, that appear to be possible 3-D objects at first due to his skillful rendering, but then reveal aspects of themselves to be mathematical line trickery upon further examination. Escher’s realism has 4 basic levels: structure, content, contour, and event integration. Structures in a drawing means 2-D surfaces are rendered with 3-D appearance, creating illusions of forms and spaces. Link structure with content phenomena, and form texture contours. Lastly, characters interact and integrate with setting events in a pluralistic world concept with recognizable motifs.

Salvador Dali is still the epitome of a modern surreal artist, even years after his death. Like other surreal artists, Dali leads the viewer’s mind through a maze, and then a sieve. Often his work is presented as being real in appearance, but in actuality is a painting, or photo, or film of dream-like illusions that are disturbing on a sub-conscious level. Dali creates appearance of fantasy, but the deeper Jungian subjective meanings are disturbingly hidden from casual glance.

Appearance and reality in music is strange to talk about, as we do not usually refer to sounding ‘realistic’, as we do with art appearing ‘realistic’. When music sounds real, we mean it sounds like a live orchestra or a real instrument, rather than an electronic synthesizer or recording. However music does create dramatic mental illusions with sound. Composers like Wagner, Mascagni, and Carl Orff were masters of telling audio stories to our hearing senses. Various musical instruments or voices can summon angry gods, peaceful landscapes, bold shining knights, beautiful flowers, and other associative feelings.

In poetry each verse gives an appearance to the reader or listener, and the reality derived is subjective. John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem ‘Snow Bound’ descriptively portrays New England life and structures during snow days. One can almost feel the cold of the snow, yet is kept warm by the brilliance of the writer’s passionate imagination. Lord Byron makes clear the emotions in many of his poems, creating ideal or realistic images within the reader’s head. Poets manipulate emotions with words, to engage the audience.

Writing is connected to acting. the line between fact and fiction and life, in books, and in performances it gets blurry. drama shows us our mental relationship with reality. music, art, and drama evoke feelings that can be very conflicting; because it evokes the psychological issues we have, whereby the human mental neo-cortical process judges ourselves and everything else based on perceptions of senses and emotions. audiences are crying out to have the freedom to pass through the veil and explore between the worlds of art & reality. Most people are confined to a life where they are told acting is not authentic, art is not real, and so they rarely dare to go outside the confines of slave-wage jobs that pay the bills. The art of acting remains a mirror world to them, that they don’t view as participatory; because they see it as an illusion to criticize. obsessive fans are right up against the mirror, touching the surface. The best artists are actors that reach through the mirror from the other side, and pull in those that want to cross the line.

This is what Democritus and Shakespeare wrote about concerning Life, the World, and Theater. Even Marlon Brando agrees, in life there are many roles we all play, acts we put on for jobs, and ways we act. One of the most fun conclusions that we are all actors in our own lives, is the realization that our clothing and uniforms are costumes.

It is impossible to know which people will like what, when I make a work of art. For me, I make what I want to create or provide for others, and if at least one other person values what I do enough to help me to live and keep creating, then I am as successful as I can be, on my own terms.

I can believe that my work is good using self-esteem, but experience has taught me humility with gambling on predictions that involve the ‘fickle’ human. If I have spent hours working on a project, of course I would like it to be valued by others, and at the very least my friends. However, in a society that places monetary value on some products that seem to have no quality, while neglecting most human lives as ‘worthless’, I can say with conviction that I do not know what I can make, that some one else cannot make better or cheaper in their own way. Who am I to say that they should not desire their own work or the work of someone else over mine? I am me, and all I can do is what I am able to do.

If I have any genius instead of talent (see one of the last reviews* a critic gave Edgar Allen Poe), then my luck will not make me rich and famous during my lifetime; as with Stephen King, JRR Tolkien, or George Martin. If I truly have the amazing artistic potential or merit that a true fan might believe, then to the rest of civilization I will most likely end up poor and infamous when I die; as with Edgar Allen Poe, Vincent Van Gogh, or HP Lovecraft. In fact I realize I am no better than Henry Darger.

The real-life mystery of the death of Edgar Allen Poe makes clear how art imitates life, and life imitates art. Furthermore, there may be some problems with society, that makes the life of an artist such a torturous hell throughout history. Perhaps artistic and autistic handicaps are more similar than government support allows. Indeed Capitalism itself seems to be the enemy of human rights for those cursed with an excess of artistic mental ‘gifts’.

I create art, books, and music because I can do nothing else as well. For those that doubt whether I have tried to work paying jobs, see my resume. Yes I can socialize, exercise, and invest in the stock market; but none of those guarantee a living wage. I am lucky that I am smart enough to tie my shoes. I am lucky I can walk. I am lucky that I can enjoy food. I am lucky that I am alive, so perhaps the fact that no one can put a price on it, means that perhaps life is priceless. If life is priceless, and if all human life is worth funding to maintain (as many claim), then perhaps we should not only see the worthlessness of critics, but also we the people should contemplate whether government should direct an economy towards these ends?

– Drogo Empedocles

*EAP’s last lecture review was sympathetic to a dying poet “…no other writer in the USA has half the chance to be remembered. Had Mr. Poe possessed talent instead of genius, he might have been a money-making author; but his title to immortality could not be surer than it is.” – Charleston newspaper editor

References: Wikipedia

Edgar Allen Poe – In 1849, Poe was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore, “in great distress, and… in need of immediate assistance”, according to a stranger who found him. He was taken to a hospital where he died after a few days. Poe was never coherent long enough to explain how he came to be in his dire condition and, oddly, was wearing clothes that were not his own. He is said to have repeatedly called out the name “Reynolds” on the night before his death, though it is unclear to whom he was referring. Some sources say that Poe’s final words were “Lord help my poor soul”. All medical records have been lost, including his death certificate. Newspapers at the time reported Poe’s death as “congestion of the brain” or “cerebral inflammation”, common euphemisms for deaths from disreputable causes such as alcoholism. The actual cause of death remains a mystery. Speculation has included beatings, alcohol poisoning, delirium tremens, heart disease, epilepsy, syphilis, cholera, and rabies. One theory dating from 1872 suggests that ‘cooping’ was the cause of Poe’s death, a form of electoral fraud of forced voting, sometimes leading to violence and even murder. The author of his critical obituary hated him.

Vincent Van Gogh – suffered fits of despair and hallucination during which he could not work, between long clear months in which he did, punctuated works of extreme visionary ecstasy (like bi-polar). He was often too depressed and unable to write, but he was still able to paint and draw a little. In 1890, aged 37, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest with a revolver. The bullet was deflected by a rib and passed through his chest without doing apparent damage to internal organs – probably stopped by his spine. Doctors tended to him as best they could, then left him alone in his room, smoking his pipe. The following morning Theo rushed to his brother’s side, but Vincent was dead within hours resulting from the wound. According to Theo, Vincent’s last words were: “The sadness will last forever”.

HP Lovecraft – Throughout his life, selling stories and paid literary work for others did not provide enough to cover Lovecraft’s basic expenses. Living frugally, he subsisted on an inheritance that was nearly depleted by the time of his last years. He sometimes went without food to afford the cost of mailing letters. Eventually, he was forced to move to smaller and meaner lodgings with his surviving aunt. He was also deeply affected by the suicide of his correspondent Robert E. Howard. In early 1937, Lovecraft was diagnosed with cancer of the small intestine, and so suffered from malnutrition. He lived in constant pain until his death in 1937, in Providence, RI.

Henry Darger – Famous only post-humously. Darger’s landlords, came across his work shortly before his death. No one seemed to know or care about his art or writing before, because he kept them secret. His book ‘Realms of the Unreal’ may be the longest book known at over 15,000 pages. He was known as a poor old crazy janitor.

To an artist ‘success’ is always secondary to the inner need and desire to create. Even when artists are driven by desires to be rich and famous, determining their success is always an after-thought of hind-sight. The purpose of deciding what is successful is not just to apply award praise or sad regret, but more importantly such analysis concludes sustainable functionality or repetition of similar models. Insanity can be defined as repeating the same failed efforts again and again but expecting different results. To be sane we evaluate our efforts that work to achieve goals. Achievements are real success; however the problem with prioritizing success, is that inventors often fail over and over in order to innovate. This is why a practicing artist must push aside the ambiguity and hypocrisy of past and future labels and problems; and just be and do what they want. Artistic Success is part self-evaluation, part opinion of critics, and part completion of work itself; all of which matters less than our ‘will-to-make’.